


13 days of halloween

by xx_anklebiters_xx



Category: Bandom, Paramore
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27097078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xx_anklebiters_xx/pseuds/xx_anklebiters_xx
Summary: collection of halloween and fall themed one shots
Relationships: Hayley Williams & Taylor York
Comments: 20
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey! this one's kind of short, but they vary in length. this one is just too cute!

"Okay, here ya go!" Taylor said with a grin. He dropped several pieces of candy into the bags of little kids. "Sorry for the wait!"

"I told you we should have gotten a bigger bowl," Hayley mumbled. 

He nudged her with his shoulder and laughed. "This bowl has a 12-inch diameter. Any bigger than that would be considered novelty, Hayley."

Hayley rolled her eyes as she bounced the baby on her lap. "How's it goin', bumblebee?" she cooed. Of course, the baby was not quite at the talking stage at the ripe old age of 10 months.

“You think she’s hot?” Taylor questioned. “She’s lookin’ a little red.”

Hayley nods and pulls the hat and feet off of the baby’s costume. “I think I’m gonna go get her some water.”

While Hayley and the baby were inside, a family came up to Taylor for candy. “You’re a beekeeper?” one of the kids asked.

“That’s right! My wife is also a beekeeper. Our baby is a bee! But they’re inside for just a minute,” he explained as he dropped candy in their buckets.

“Can I see your baby?” the same child inquired.

“Of course! We’ll see if they come out soon.” And sure enough, Hayley and their baby exited the house. The little girl had a bottle full of water in her hands.

“Hi! Happy Halloween!” Hayley exclaimed.

“She’s pretty!” the young child told Taylor, “So is your baby!”

“I know!” he laughed. “That’s Hayley, and this is tiny Acacia!” He petted Acacia’s head.

“What a beautiful family,” their mother told him.

“Thank you so much!” Hayley cooed. “And again, Happy Halloween!”


	2. Chapter 2

Taylor stood on Hayley’s doorstep. After a quick deep breath, he smiled. He felt ready for their third date but understood that maybe their second date didn’t go 100% to plan. He then decided to stop trying to surprise her. Well, mostly.

“Hey! Sorry for the wait,” she said when she opened the door. “One of my earrings disappeared for a few minutes.”

They exchanged a quick hug and she kissed his cheek. “So, a haunted house?”

“Yeah! I’m really excited, are you?” He closed her car door after she got in and rushed to his door.

“I mean,” she started when he got in, “I told you that I’m not a fan of Halloween or super scary or gory things. So we could assume haunted houses fall in that category, right?”

“Right, but I told you! I bring my nieces here every year, they love it. It’ll be fine, alright?” He reached a hand over and she grabbed it.

“Alright.”

When they arrived, Taylor grinned at Hayley and she felt uneasy about their environment, “How old are your nieces again?”

“Five and nine, why?” He already knew why she was asking.

“Well, a guy with a chainsaw just chased four teenagers past us,” she commented.

Taylor laughed, “It doesn’t have a chain on it, it just makes the noise.”

“Okay, no one in the haunted house will touch you, they’re not allowed to. If you’re uncomfortable, you can ask them to take a step back. There are strobes and fog within, please do not enter if those will be harmful to you. Move through the house at your pace, and have a nice time,” the attendant told them when they approached the entrance.

“Well, I’m glad they won’t touch me?” Hayley mumbled at Taylor.

She experienced a momentary peace when the first two rooms just looked creepy with no actual employees of the house in it. All sense of peace went away when she felt a breath on the back of her neck.

“No, no, no,” she said quickly. “I need you to get behind me _now_.” Taylor chuckled but obliged. She practically glued her body to his.

“Relax, it’s okay,” he whispered in her ear.

And Hayley began to think things were okay until a black figure that was _way_ too tall crossed the hallway in front of them. She spun around and buried her face in his chest. “I don’t wanna do this anymore,” she whined.

“There are people behind us, so we have to. Come on, we’re like halfway through. This is all fake, remember?” he petted her hair. “It’s just a stilt walker.”

He felt her take a deep breath and then turn around. They walked forward more and entered a section that was full of nets, fake animal parts, and smoke. When the strobe lights flashed, Hayley spotted a bloody butcher with a cleaver, but its face was a pig head. When she looked over, it started rushing toward them.

“Oh my _God_ ,” she whined. “No, _no!”_

Taylor pulled her around the netting and out of the room before the creature got too close to them. He practically dragged her through the last two parts of the haunted house.

When they got out, she crashed into him in a tight hug. “Why would you _do_ that? You said you take your nieces there!”

Taylor chuckled and said, “I do! They’re weird kids. Look, I’m sorry. I feel really bad.”

She looked up at him, her eyes teary, and said. “You’re awful. I hated it. God, that was terrible.”

“So terrible that you’d never go out with me again?” he asked.

“So terrible that I would do it again, but only if you could go with me,” she said with a smile. “But I would give you a bad review if you could do that on dating apps."

“Well, hopefully, neither of us will need a dating app anytime soon, right?” he joked.

“Absolutely right,” she agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

It amused Taylor to say that Hayley’s cooking improved very little over the course of their relationship. He didn’t mind it much even though it led to him cooking a lot more than he used to. On this particular morning, he found himself in the kitchen, making pancakes shaped like bats and ghosts and pumpkins. He was so excited to find these little molds on the internet and bought them in July. It happened that he forgot he’d even ordered them until they arrived in the mail just a few days later.

“You wanna wake the girls up?” Taylor asked a very sleepy Hayley. 

She nodded with a yawn and shuffled her regular way to first their younger daughter, Iris’s bedroom. She leaned over the railing of the crib and rubbed her back. “Up, up, up,” she cooed softly. And the little girl, who was just a few months shy of two years old, awoke to her mom’s soft voice. She had no problem snuggling up to Hayley. “Let’s get Cay, up okay?”

Acacia was already in the middle of waking up and stretching when Hayley entered the room. “‘Morning, Mama,” the five-year-old said with a grin.

“Hey, love! Daddy’s making cool pancakes. You hungry?” The woman adjusted the baby on her hip and petted the young girl’s curly hair.

“Oh, I’m  _ starving _ !” she informed her mother.

Hayley couldn’t help but laugh when she saw their dining room table. Taylor piled all sorts of sugar onto it. “Today’s like… the one day a year mom will let me feed you all of this for breakfast and then also let you have as much candy as you want before bed. Happy Halloween!”

She laughed when Taylor made a pile of whipped cream on their daughter’s plate and stuck two tiny sprinkles on its eyes and called it a ghost. He handed their toddler a bat-shaped pancake and poured syrup directly on the tray of her high chair. Hayley rolled her eyes because the first thing the little girl did was stick her hands into it. And in her usual fashion, grabbed her hair with her sticky hands.

“So,” the man said when he sat down next to their older daughter. “What are we being for Halloween? I know Mama bought you guys like 50 costumes each. I wanna know how my opinion on the fashion show worked out.”

“Well, you won,” Hayley sighed. “Iris wouldn’t stop howling when I showed her all of her costumes. Thank you for teaching her that, by the way. She’s gonna be the wolf.”

“I’m gonna be little red riding hood!” Acacia told him. “Mommy wants to be the guy who chops me outta the wolf!”

Taylor nodded slowly and looked at Hayley. “Am I the grandma?” She nodded, almost unable to contain her laugh. “That’s fair. I don’t have a nightgown on hand, but okay.”

Halfway through trick or treating, Iris fell asleep. Hayley was walking around with her hanging over her shoulder and started telling people she was a little conquered wolf. It was cute, but admittedly, she missed her little howls. The howls were cuter.

“Daddy, I’m  _ tired _ ,” Acacia claimed not too much later. “Can you carry me?”

Taylor stopped walking and pulled his wife and child to the side. “You wanna look in your bucket? We can see how much candy you have and if you think it’s a good amount, we can go home, okay?”

The trio peeked into the pail, which was much fuller than either parent had noticed. They realized that if they took the time to finish the street, the bucket would overflow. So, the little girl decided, “I wanna go home.”

She, too, fell asleep in Taylor’s arms on the walk home. Iris was a much heavier sleeper than Acacia had ever been, so she hardly even stirred when Hayley wiped off her little wolf makeup, changed her diaper, and then put her in her crib. Acacia, on the other hand, woke up while Hayley was wiping her lipstick off.

“Can I have candy?” she asked sleepily.

Hayley smiled and toyed with her hair. “Of course, baby. Are you still sleepy?”

The tiny girl shook her head as she dug around in her pail. “I wanna lay with you.”

So Hayley let her lay against her chest as she leaned back against the headboard of her and Taylor’s bed. She sifted through her candy occasionally, which sat right next to them. When Taylor got out of the shower, he kissed the little girl’s head and asked, “How many kisses will a piece of chocolate cost?”

She seemed to think for a second and said, “Forty-seven.”

The man laughed because he was absolutely certain that she didn’t quite know how to count all the way up to 47, but had probably recently heard the number somewhere. “Man, have these prices gone up or  _ what _ ?” He joked.

Hayley smirked at Taylor. “Mine was free,” she teased. “Sucks to suck.”

Taylor crouched down and eyed their little girl. “How come Mama got free chocolate?”

The little girl giggled and responded, “She’s holding me.”

“So,” Taylor dragged out as he thought. “In theory, I could take you from Mama right now and it would get me free candy?”

“No, because I want Mama,” she explained.

“Ohhh,” he expressed. He then crouched down to level his face with hers. “But I thought  _ I _ was your favorite? Mama can’t be your favorite, she’s already my favorite.”

“Nuh-uh!” she giggled back.

“Yeah! She’s my favorite person in the whole  _ world _ . I love spending time with her so much that we live together and sleep in the same bed, you know,” he bragged. Hayley let out a little laugh.

“‘Cause you’re married!” Acacia countered.

Taylor rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Duh! Why do you think I married her?” When the little girl shrugged he said, “I win!”

“Do you wanna take your costume off?” Hayley suggested. She nodded and let Hayley pull the little cape and dress off of her. “Can you drop these in the hamper?”

Taylor nodded and grabbed the clothes. “You want PJs?” he asked. The little girl shook her head. “Fair enough.”

“Hey, I gotta take a shower,” Hayley explained. “Do you wanna sit with Daddy or do you wanna get in with me? We can get all this hair gel out.”

The little girl looked back and forth between her parents very indecisively. Both adults knew that getting her to bathe a second time in the day would be a longshot. Still, their sweet baby nodded and stretched her arms out to wrap around her mother.

“Okay,” Hayley said, “Let’s go, then. T, there’s the baby monitor.” The pair began to walk their way to the bathroom and while the five-year-old was speaking some sort of nonsense, Hayley spun around and mouthed, ‘get the candy,’ with a gesture toward the bucket at her husband.

Taylor went and set the candy in the kitchen and hoped his daughter would forget about it for the night. When he returned to his bedroom, he smiled at the two voices singing together in the shower. He couldn’t help but focus on the smaller voice which was getting more and more on pitch each day. It made him proud and he knew it made Hayley happy, too. Every day, he still marveled at the fact that the love of his life gave birth to two tiny creatures that made his world spin. He realized there was no other way his life could have ever been meant to be.

When the two girls waddled out of the bathroom wrapped in towels, Taylor smiled. “You sleepin’ with us tonight, little bug?” he questioned. The little girl shrugged and gravitated toward him. “Okay, well let’s get some clothes on you and brush that hair, yeah?”

He left Hayley drying her hair off and to do whatever else was included in her nightly routine. In Acacia’s room, she pulled down the towel that Hayley hung over her head and tightly wound around her little body. Taylor sprayed her hair with detangling spray and began to brush it out.

“Daddy?” she said quietly. He hummed in response, so she said, “Can I have two braids? And I don’t wanna wear jammies.”

Taylor, who was really focused on brushing out the messy ringlets, said, “Okay, two braids, yeah. And you don’t have to, that’s okay.” He knew very well that Hayley didn’t wear clothes to bed and he slept in his underwear, so forcing their kids to wear pajamas was nonsensical.

The two found their way back to Hayley, who was climbing into bed. Acacia ran over to Hayley and climbed up the bed and then on top of Hayley. “Hey, look! It’s your spooky underwear!” she laughed out. “You’ve got ghosts on your butt.”

“They glow!” she informed her mom.

“Wow. That’s so fancy, I’m impressed,” she enthused. “Now let’s sleep, I’m  _ exhausted _ .”

The three shared their goodnights and Hayley rolled over to turn the baby monitor up to make sure they could hear Iris. She kissed the two Yorks beside her goodnight and slung her arm across her child’s body, catching a tight grip on her husband’s hand and dozing off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn’t edit this one. good luck lol

“Alright! Let loose, pick a pumpkin!” Taylor called out as he let go of his kids’ hands. The two little girls toddled off and Hayley laughed.

“Smooth move, genius. Iris just busted her ass,” she laughed out, a hand slapping against her husband’s shoulder.

“Wow, look at her go! She really bounces back,” he commented.

The couple followed their girls who were touching every pumpkin in sight as if they’d never seen one before. For Acacia, touching the pumpkins quickly became slapping them like they were drums. There was one specific one that she smacked and her little eyes lit up.

“Bumpy,” she cooed. “Daddy! I want this one!”

Taylor nodded and picked up the pumpkin, which was definitely heavier than he thought it would be. “Which one do you want, Iris?”

She started slapping one specific pumpkin, so Hayley shrugged and picked it up. “I think it’s safe to say this is the one for her.”

Hayley and Taylor were quick to pick theirs, not quite as particularly as their kids did. Taylor did his best to balance three pumpkins so that Hayley didn’t have to carry too much; she laughed at his funny posture and slow steps. They loaded them into the trunk and then loaded their children into the car and began the drive home.

“When are you gonna start carrying your own pumpkin?” He asked Iris on their way inside their house.

“Is pumpkin,” she told him.

“Ah, thank you,” he responded. “Very informative.”

When they got inside, Hayley set the girls up with pains and paint brushes in front of their respective 

pumpkins. Then, she set up carving tools for her and Taylor.

“What are you making?” He asked.

As Hayley tapped her pumpkin, she thought. “I don’t know. Maybe a bat?”

“Nice choice! I think I’m gonna do a spooky face. Yours will do just fine as a model.” He smirked at his wife and she stuck her tongue out at him.

Hayley finished cutting a hole in the top of her pumpkin and said, “Cay, you wanna help me?” The little girl nodded and ran around the table at her. “Okay, watch the knife alright? But stand on the chair here, reach in, and pull all that stuff out.”

The little girl made a sour face at Hayley. “It’s squishy,” she whined.

“Yeah, but the best part is that we’re gonna make Daddy roast the pumpkin seeds and  _ those _ are an excellent snack!” She grinned up at Taylor. “Right?”

“Yup! We actually roast them  _ every _ year, but Mama is always convinced that you’re not big enough to eat them.” He glances over to Hayley and she rolls her eyes. “She just wanted to make sure we could get you to chew all of your food before you swallowed it first.”

“But I can have them now?”’ she asked. She looked up at Hayley hopefully. After all, she  _ did _ make them sound really, super yummy.

Hayley nodded. “Yeah, of course, baby.”

The couple enjoyed lighting their pumpkins on their front porch. Of course, it was a struggle to get Iris to not touch the candle flame of the candle, but they managed; never without a small bout of crying.

“Alright, cry baby,” Taylor said, tossing the toddler onto their bed. “It’s bedtime.”

“Can I sleep in here too?” Acacia asked.

Taylor nodded at the little girl and tossed her onto the bed as well. “Mama doesn’t need to sleep with us, right?”

Hayley walked into the room and said, “I don’t like what I hear. I will kick  _ all _ of you off of this bed. It’ll be me and Alf, no worries in the world.”

“That’s not very nice,” the five-year-old sighed. “I think I’m too cute to be kicked out.”

Hayley laughed harder than she should have. “Get a load of this one! Too cute? I don’t know…”

“I  _ am _ cute!” she whined. “Daddy! Tell her I’m cute!”

Taylor shrugged. “The carbon copy’s right. She  _ is  _ cute.”

“No, no, no,” Hayley argued. “You can’t call her a carbon copy to turn the compliment on me in hopes of not getting kicked out.”

“But it worked, right?” he questioned. “You’re not laying in the middle of the bed anymore.”

“Now you hush up and get in bed before I change my mind,” she threatened. “Five seconds.”

“Okay, okay! Goodnight, love,” he cooed. “Goodnight to the babies


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn’t edit this one either :)

There were days where Hayley tried her very best not to leave her children alone with Taylor. Sure, he was their dad and he loved them, but he would look at her with this twinkle in his eye that told her the three of them were out for destruction. On this particular day, Taylor had that gleam in his eye.

She’d requested that all three of them behaved themselves while she was out at a meeting with Brian. Her husband was suspicious from the get-go. Still, she left the house with the three of them just sitting in the living room watching her go.

When she pulled back into the driveway, it seemed as though nothing had moved. Upon opening the front door, she learned the house was completely still. Silence in a place with any of those Yorks seemed suspicious.

And she was right because she saw a little head of curls pass one of the back windows and then made her own way to their backyard just in time to watch her husband literally throw their older child into a large pile of leaves. “Taylor!” she griped. “Did you make sure there were no rocks in that pile?”

The man laughed and said, “That’s what I’m doing right now. If there’s a rock in there, she’ll let me know somehow.” Hayley huffed a sigh and shifted her weight, her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m  _ kidding _ , Hayley. Of course I checked. You noticed how I put jackets on them?  _ And _ I’ve thrown Iris absolutely zero times.”

She nodded with approval. “Iris might not be the best helper you’ve got.” Taylor looked behind him in the direction she was pointing.

“Well, shit,” he laughed. “Iris, you’re not supposed to take the leaves  _ out _ of the pile!” He scooped the toddler up and started tossing her into the air. She giggled very loudly each time she went up. 

Hayley moved closer to her family. “You all have crushed up leaves in your hair,” she commented.

“You know snow angels?” Acacia asked. Hayley nodded. “We made those with leaves!”

“Mhmm,” the woman hummed. “Yeah, I assumed it had to do with the leaves. You know what this means, kiddo?”

“What?” she questioned, combing through the leaves with her hands.

“It means that Daddy gets to handle bath time tonight,” she grinned.

Taylor stopped tossing Iris. “Aw man.”

“That’s the agreement,” Hayley told him with a shrug. “Dirty the kids, bathe the kids.”

“That’s true,” he said. “But will you play with us?”

“Fine,” she laughs.

The group rolled around in the leaves for a while which also led to a lot of mud stains. Taylor volunteered to do laundry as well, which Hayley appreciated. For a moment, they all laid together and looked up at the clouds.

“Could you make a house with leaves?” Acacia asked.

“I mean, I guess?” Hayley said. “I don’t know.”

“I think you could,” Taylor sighed. “But you would have to like… papier-mâché it. I don’t think it would be very weather resistant.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Well, papier-mâché is kind of like gluing them together to make them nice and sturdy.” The little girl hummed in understanding when her father explained this.

Iris began to toddle around the leaves. Hayley watched her move around their bodies with a lack of grace attributed to the uneven piles. She leaned over Hayley’s face and said, “Here.”

Taylor and Acacia started to laugh when Iris dropped a bunch of leaves onto Hayley’s face. She sputtered and attempted to brush the leaves off of her face. The small girl had also accidentally grabbed a couple of twigs and some dirt in her handfuls.

“Thank you, stinky,” Hayley cooed. She pulled her down onto her stomach. They peered into each other’s eyes. “Why do you beat me up so much?”

“Mama, leaf,” she said. She handed Hayley a leaf.

“Is this financial compensation?” She lifted the little girl’s sweater and the neckline of her onesie and slid the leaf into it.

Iris wiggled as the leaf slid around on her back. She giggled and then shined and tried to reach her own back. Hayley laughed at her.

“Why are you bullying our baby?” Taylor questioned. Hayley’s laughter had distracted him from his chatter with Acacia.

Hayley shrugged. “It’s funny?” she laughed out. Iris wiggled harder. “Okay, okay, crybaby. Let me take it out.”

Hayley removed the leaf and rubbed her back. “Dad’s so mean for putting that leaf there, isn’t he? Big meanie.”

Taylor gasped. “This is slander. I did  _ not _ put that leaf there! That was Acacia!”

“Nuh-uh!” Acacia whined. “Mommy did that!”

Hayley nudged Acacia with her elbow. “Snitch!” she called out.

They laughed for a minute before Taylor said, “Noses are getting red, it’s time to go in now. Unless y’all want your noses to fall off. Let’s go.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! i know i haven't kept up with the chapters very well and for that, I'm so sorry! i haven't been feeling too well physically or emotionally, so i'm sure you guys know how sometimes even the things you love can begin to feel like chores. but! today i felt pretty okay, so worked on this when i had some free time and i'm gonna make sure you guys get 13 chapters. thanks for understanding and i hope y'all enjoy this chapter :)  
> much love!

“Okie dokie,” Hayley sighed, curling up against Taylor. “Pet Sematary?”

“As you wish,” he murmured. He pulled her closer and then popped a piece of popcorn in her mouth.

“Yum!” she hummed. “What do you wanna watch next?”

“Next?” he asked. “That’s assuming I wanted to watch  _ this _ .”

Hayley looked up at him and rolled her eyes. “Come on, you love spending time with me.” She batted her eyes and him and he chuckled.

“That I do,” he sighed. “Never thought it meant that I  _ had _ to love these movies. Most of them suck and the rest just… don’t appeal to me. Is that a crime?”

“It is,” she sighed. “It really is.”

“Then handcuff me,” he said with a shrug.

“No,” she whined. “ _ I’m _ the one who gets to be put in handcuffs.”

Taylor laughed and looked at her pout with sympathy. “Well, yeah,  _ usually _ , but we’re talking about me committing a criminal offense, here.”

“Oh, gosh, whatever,” she mumbled, very much unable to mask her amusement.

They watched the movie for a while without talking. Hayley giggled each time Taylor jumped. But, he insisted he wasn’t scared, so she didn’t dare to paint him out as so. She did, however, cuddle closer so he could feel her warmth; it always seemed to relax him, anyway.

After the first movie finished, she asked him to make more popcorn. She hardly ever ate this much popcorn, really. She liked it enough, but she didn’t care for the shells that got stuck between her teeth. So on any other night, he would have been left to finish the bowl without her. But still, he went to make more because she asked and he simply couldn’t tell her no.

While the popcorn was popping, he thought he heard her talk, so he went back to the living room. She was peering at movie cases. “Did you say something?” he asked. She shook her head, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. “You sure?”

“Yeah,” she told him with a smirk. “I’m fairly certain that I know the happenings of my own mouth, Taylor.”

She continued to inspect the movies without any further comment. He stared at her for a moment; her hair tucked behind her ears, his beanie, her focus. Ethereal was the only word he could put to it. As if she felt his eyes on her, she turned and looked at him, a teasing sense of annoyance cast upon her face.

“What, York? Are you in  _ love _ ?” she taunted.

“I might be,” he responded, a small smile forming. “But I’ve got corn to pop.”

“Mhm.”

He returned to the kitchen to pour the popcorn into a bowl and he heard Hayley laugh. So, he hurried up and then rushed into the living room. “What’s funny?” he questioned.

“I got a text from Lindsey, okay?” she laughed out. “Can you stop being so paranoid?”

“I’m  _ not _ ,” he defended.

“Sure,” she mumbled. “Anyway, we’re watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

Taylor rolled his eyes. “You know I hate real stuff!”

“It’s only kinda real,” Hayley explained. “Plus it’s old. It’s  _ fine _ .”

And so he obliged because he loved her. She sat practically on top of him for this movie and they ate popcorn together. Well, she more like picked at it. Taylor found himself annoyed by that, but it was fine.

“What was that?” He asked after hearing a sound from behind him.

“Alf, probably? Calm down,” Hayley said softly. He took a deep breath and hugged her closer.

He heard the sound again but told himself that it was probably just Alf, so he ignored it. Hayley seemed to chuckle at the movie, which Taylor didn’t understand, but sometimes he just let her be her weird self, so he ignored that too. He did feel unreasonably nervous, though. That, he couldn’t explain.

A while into the movie, in a particularly tense part, Taylor felt hands suddenly grab his shoulder. He let out a yelp and jumped so hard that Hayley fell off of the couch. Hayley laughed hysterically, Taylor looked around at the popcorn-littered floor and then up at the culprit.

“Zac what the actual  _ fuck _ ??” he yelled. “When did you even get here?”

Zac laughed and commented, “You know Hayley never eats a second bowl of popcorn. Idiot.”

“You  _ were _ talking!” He griped, pointing his finger down at Hayley. “And this is why you laughed, isn’t it?”

She was definitely lost in her own hysterics but nodded to confirm his suspicions. He shook his head and grumbled something about them being assholes, but they paid no mind to him as they laughed together and mimicked Taylor’s screech.

“I’m not cleaning the popcorn,” he warned. “Zac can eat it, for all I care. You guys are annoying.”


	7. Chapter 7

Early in the morning, three Yorks shuffled around like zombies. It was cute; three bed-heads and the same exact nose-wrinkling yawn. Taylor was up and happy, strolling around and filling water bottles. Sure, he was tired, but anything he did with his family was worth his energy.

“I’m gonna wear one of your sweatshirts,” Hayley told him in passing. He didn’t bother to protest, he knew she didn’t care if he was going to tell her no or not. She carried their youngest daughter to his closet.

The middle of the bed heads waddled up to him. “Daddy, can I have a sweater too?” she asked sweetly. Taylor crouched down to her level.

“Of course you can, princess,” he whispered softly. “Go get one with Momma.”

He followed them to his own closet. Their baby was grabbing at his sweatshirts as Hayley scanned them. She kept saying something that sounded like, “Me, me!”

Hayley mumbled something about how she could wear one too and pulled three random ones off of their respective hangers. She gave one to Acacia and then put Iris on their bed. Taylor laughed at the sweatshirt that was too big to even stay on her body. Hayley let out a sleepy whine and settled on draping the sweatshirt over her shoulders.

“So now that everyone is wearing Dad’s clothes, who’s ready for a hike?” Taylor asked.

They drove to a hiking trail and got out. Acacia was particularly happy because Hayley let her bring an old basket to collect things with. She jumped out of the car with Alf’s leash in one hand and her basket in the other.

“Alright, that’s not gonna work out,” Hayley told her. She took the leash from her hand. “You can’t hold Alf and collect things, he’s stronger than you.”

She let out a little whine but didn’t argue; Alf had definitely knocked her over her fair share. She did walk closely with Alf, though, as the two had been best friends for quite some time.

Taylor walked hand in hand with Iris who was still working out how to balance herself on otherwise rocky terrains. Luckily, Taylor was observant and made sure she didn’t fall. He was pretty busy watching his sweater drag the ground, though.

“Daddy, my basket is getting heavy, can you hold it?” Acacia asked Taylor at a halfway point.

He nodded and grabbed it, gasping at its weight. “What the fuck?” he said. He looked down into and learned that at some point along the way, she and Hayley put a very large rock into it.

“We wanna paint it,” Hayley explained with a shrug. “There’ll probably be more.”

And as usual, he didn’t argue because they were just too cute to debate with. Hayley was definitely right, as just a few seconds later, Acacia found another rock she could barely carry to plop into the basket. Meanwhile, Iris had started to pull on Taylor’s clothes, wanting to be carried. He picked her up, as she wanted, and she babbled mindlessly in his ear while Hayley and Acacia talked to each other about how they would paint their rocks. Alf marched on, only partially annoyed by Hayley holding him back.

Halfway back to the car, Acacia also wanted to be carried, so Hayley picked her up and almost lost her balance doing so because she was standing only halfway on the ground and halfway on a broken branch and Taylor had to catch the two of them to prevent them from tumbling down the hill.

“I’m the backbone of this family,” he gloated jokingly. 

“Oh hush up,” Hayley quipped. “We almost took you down with us.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

They spent the car ride home singing along to some children’s songs the two adults didn’t particularly care for. They did, however, enjoy making their daughters smile, so they went along with their wishes. That and they had no choice but to enjoy it if they wanted to keep it out of their own heads for the rest of the day. And it was nice for them to have successfully hiked once again as a unit.


	8. Chapter 8

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Hayley said on the night before Halloween. “Acacia, I want every blanket you can find in this house. T, build the structure of a fort. I’m getting pillows. And Iris… well, supervise Daddy! He’ll need some pointers.”

Taylor laughed and asked, “You know she doesn’t care, right?”

Hayley rolled her eyes. “It’s not a  _ family _ fort if not everyone in the family contributes.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed. Iris was completely lost in smashing the buttons on the TV remote.

Hayley collected their bed pillows and couch pillows and tossed them all down into the middle of Taylor’s fort structure. Acacia was dragging blankets everywhere.

They cuddled up in the fort with Taylor’s iPad and a flashlight. They watched a bunch of little kid Halloween stuff for a while, which Hayley definitely hated more than Taylor did.

They let the girls fall asleep in the fort but took them to their respective beds and cleaned up afterward. Hayley enjoyed curling up to Taylor to watch a scary movie of their own.

“They had fun, right?” Hayley asked.

Taylor nodded his head and said, “Of course they did. Every little kid likes forts.”

“They’re so fucking cute,” she told him. “Their little sleepy faces? God, they’re amazing.”

Taylor chuckled and rubbed Hayley’s back. “I don’t even  _ know _ how they’re so perfect. It’s no secret that we’re messes.”

“Maybe it canceled out, I don’t know. We’re lucky.” She hugged him tighter, her legs winding around his. “I just know that I’m exhausted.”

“There’s never a  _ wrong _ time to rest,” he told her. “Let’s sleep. Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight,” she mumbled. He kissed her head. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”


	9. Chapter 9

Hayley set down a bag of apples on the island of their kitchen. Acacia pushed her helping stool over to her. She watched her mom screw an apple peeler onto the counter and then shove one onto the little prongs. It was yet another item she bought on impulse that Taylor swore they would never get use of.

“Here, have a go at that,” Hayley told her.

And the little girl began to crank the little lever and the apple began peelings pretty slowly due to Acacia’s lack of strength. Hayley let out an accomplished hum and then went to gather other ingredients.

“I finished the one,” Acacia told her. “I don’t like that machine.”

“Yeah, I was thinking it wasn’t a good fit for you. How about I show you how to cut the apples and you can do that and I’ll do this?” she asked.

“Okay!” Acacia agreed.

“Cool, I’m gonna get your knives, hold on a second.” Hayley turned around and pulled open a drawer where she found Acacia’s little kid-safe knives. “Okay so I’ll take this off and then you’re just gonna slice it right down the middle like this and drop all the little pieces in this bowl.”

Hayley was happy that the peeler spiraled the apples, saving a lot of time for the pair to slice all the apples. She cranked the apples around at twice the speed Acacia did, so there was very little pile up with the apples between the two of them.

“So for these last few, baby, can you cut them like this?” she asked as she used a knife to show Acacia how to separate the spirals into little rounds as opposed to little wedges. “We’re gonna make these into chips!”

She could hear Taylor and Iris laughing wildly in the living room, most likely at each other. At least she could tell herself that there were no evident signs of crashing or destruction. The two of them were a cute little duo, always giggling and making weird faces at each other.

While Acacia continued to cut apples, Hayley quickly pulled the pie crust out of the fridge and turned the oven on. She then returned to Acacia’s side to watch her actions with the knife. They were made of plastic, pretty much, but Hayley always felt that if they could cut through their raw food ingredients, they would still prove harm to her child had they been used incorrectly. So next to Acacia, she began to toss the apple in cinnamon and sugar and whatever else her little recipe book instructed her to.

“You know who made the pie crust?” Hayley asked.

“You?” Acacia guessed. She looked skeptical. Damn, even her five-year-old knew she sucked.

Hayley laughed. “No, Nana! When you and Iris had a sleepover with Ella and Nora, Daddy and I went to see Nana and Popop. She made us this pie crust and said she thought we could make a pie together. She even put it in the pie dish so I had less of a chance to mess it up.” Hayley stopped talking and looked at Acacia because she was giggling. “Well she didn’t  _ say _ that part, but she probably thought it, right?”

“ _ Maybe _ ,” she said slowly. “But I like it when you make… waffles!”

“That’s from a box mix, baby,” Hayley laughed. “And you know Daddy’s waffles are better. What about my spaghetti?”

Acacia stopped slicing the apples and looked up at Hayley, her eyes wide. “Yeah, but maybe Daddy can help you make spaghetti again.”

Hayley laughed, remembering the weekend that Taylor had gone to LA to help a friend with an album. He’d asked her a million times if she wanted him to stay home and she said no. He’d even asked if she wanted to go with him. He’d even asked if she wanted to bring the kids. Still, she insisted he go and have at least  _ some _ fun while he was there, so he did. On her first dreaded night alone with the girls, she dropped the pasta into the boiling water, as she should have, and then realized it was time for a then four or five-month-old Iris to eat once again. So between breastfeeding Iris and a call from Taylor, she’d forgotten about the noodles for a minute or… five and they’d been quite mushy.

“Yeah, well I don’t think Daddy could’ve helped that from California, baby,” Hayley told her. She smiled at the memory even though in its own moment, it had made her cry and ultimately take the girl to get fast food. “Alright, let’s get this pie in the oven.”

They cleaned the kitchen while the pie and chips were in the oven and then went to bother Taylor and Iris. Acacia started to play with Iris on the floor and Hayley sat next to Taylor.

“That apple peeler works like a charm,” she told him. “I think we should start using it for potatoes.”

“Is that so?” he asked. She hummed in response and he said, “Fine, purchase justified.”

“Fantastic. We also talked about that awful spaghetti nightmare from when you went to LA,” she told him.

He laughed and said, “I’m sorry, but that’s so funny to me now. Like in retrospect, I don’t even know why either of us thought that leaving you home with an infant and toddler for an entire weekend would be okay.”

“God, I don’t know. I mean, Iris wasn’t even sleeping through the night yet. I should have listened to you.” She intertwined her fingers with his. “But it happens.”

“It does,” he agreed. “You  _ did _ set a timer for the pie though, right?”

She rolled her eyes and nodded. “If I messed up your mom’s pie crust, she would be embarrassed of me.”

“Well, probably, but she wouldn’t  _ say _ it,” he laughed. “Just how she is.”

“I love her for that,” Hayley told him.

“She is a nice lady,” he agreed.


End file.
